Side Effects
Side Effects is a Star Trek: The Original Series manga story from the 2006 anthology Shinsei Shinsei, published by TokyoPop, written by Chris Dows, with art by Makoto Nakasuka. In this story, a landing party aboard a 200 year-old damaged vessel found a large group of humanoids hooked into equipment. The ending contained a shocking revelation. Summary ;Captain’s Log, Stardate 4722.1. :Having detected a badly damaged alien vessel, a landing party consisting of myself, Science Officer Spock, Doctor McCoy and Ensign Chekov is investigating disturbing sensor readings. McCoy said the humanoids locked in the mysterious equipment were all from the same race,“but have combinations of other species spliced into them.” One hybrid showed traces of human and Romulan DNA along with hundreds of others. Some had cybernetic implants grafted into their nervous systems. Feeding tubes and circuitry kept them alive in a semi-conscious state. Records indicated the ship had been launched more than 200 years ago. A female hybrid had mechanical implants and organs from nine species within her, but didn’t seem to be as debilitated as the others. The woman suddenly awoke, broke out of the equipment that had been holding her, grabbed Chekov, and poked something into his neck before Kirk could fire at her. All the humanoids began awaking, and the woman seemed unaffected by phaser fire, so the landing party quickly beamed back to the ship. While Chekov was being treated, a wormhole erupted nearby. A massive vessel emerged from within and dragged it, the damaged ship and the Enterprise through the wormhole to a massive space station orbiting a black hole in an unknown area of space. Around the station, the Enterprise and more than 100 other vessels were being held in high-energy containment fields, and some were over 3,000 years old. Yet the station itself was no more than 50 years old. Chekov had been infected with the same accelerated antigen as the hybrids, and it was killing him. McCoy deduced someone was kidnapping as many races as they could, using their immune systems to improve its own, to research a cure for a highly-adaptive disease. Spock realized that due to time dilation effects from the event horizon of the black hole, it was possible for an experimenter to send ships into normal space-time, run experiments for several hundred years, and then retrieve the ships, with only days or weeks having passed near the black hole. Uhura was unable to contact the station, but the mutated female and several other hybrids appeared to be attacking the satellite’s perimeter shields. McCoy said the female hybrid’s physiology was unique, and since she infected Chekov, a tissue sample from her was needed Even in suspended animation, Chekov would be dead in a matter of weeks. Beaming to the satellite and tracking the female hybrid, the landing party found her and several followers attacking security from the satellite. Following a fight, security evaded the female and brought the landing party to a command area where they met Dr. Mynzek. Mynzek said their race was dead apart from those left on the station and he’d spent 50 years trying to save his race. He believed the female – his daughter, Danzek – had the cure to the disease. Danzek then breached the command area and, after a fight, infected her father with her antigen. She reached for Kirk, but Spock deflected her arm and broke her shoulder, spilling her blood on him. The satellite began breaking up and reopening multiple wormholes. After beaming back, Sulu piloted the ship back through the wormhole they arrived in, returning to Federation space. The blood on Spock allowed McCoy to cure Chekov. Captain’s Log, Stardate 4722.8. :The ''Enterprise escaped its space-time prison…and Chekov is on his way to recovery. However, the nature of what we experienced continues to elude us. I am working with Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy to complete our report to Starfleet.'' Spock said several escape pods were jettisoned during the breakup of the satellite, but one escape pod had been piloted deliberately into another of the wormholes. There might have been at least one survivor, but as there was no way to know where or when the wormhole exited, the survivors might have emerged thousands of years in the past or future. McCoy said the infection was curable only because it came directly from the female. “If she goes on to infect others,” he said, “and the pattern of infection continues, resistance to such a race would be, well, futile.” References Characters :Pavel Chekov • Danzek • James T. Kirk • Leonard McCoy • Myznek • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura Albert Einstein Starships and vehicles : • escape pod • Myznek's lab ship • Myznek's retrieval ship • Myznek's space station Locations Races and cultures :Human • Myznek's species • Vulcan Romulan States and organizations :Starfleet • United Federation of Planets Other references :antigen • black hole • bridge • communicator • containment field • cybernetics • DNA • event horizon • nervous system • neutrino • phaser • red alert • sensor • shields • sickbay • space station • special theory of relativity • temporal distortion • time dilation • transporter • wormhole • yellow alert Appendices Information *This story was reprinted larger (6" x 9") in ''Star Trek: The Manga - Ultimate Edition'', with the first 16 pages in color. Related Stories * – A mechanical intelligence seeking to augment organic life with cybernetic implants uses a female human as a template to create an ultimate version of itself. * }} – The Borg Queen tries to assimilate the . Images File:Side-Effects-lab-ship.jpg|The Enterprise approaches the lab ship. File:Side-Effects-aboard-lab-ship.jpg|Exploring the 200-year-old vessel. File:Side-Effects-Danzek-discovery.jpg|Discovering Danzek File:Side-Effects-lab-ship-color.jpg|Ultimate Edition File:Side-Effects-aboard-lab-ship-color.jpg|Ultimate Edition File:Side-Effects-Myznek.jpg|Myznek Connections Category:TOS comics